


Script.

by whizzerdbrown



Category: Falsettos - Lapine/Finn
Genre: F/F, F/M, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Modern AU, Pining, Sort Of, but he’ll eventually develop into our fave act two boi, buts not like the center of the thing, marvin and charlotte work together, marvin and trina are together in the beginning, some act one marvin in the beginning, trans cordelia as well, trans whizzer
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-12
Packaged: 2019-03-16 04:00:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13628166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whizzerdbrown/pseuds/whizzerdbrown
Summary: Whizzer Brown is an aspiring director in New York City, trying to make short films, where all of his script pitches keep getting rejected. He doesn’t have the resources or money to get the recourses to do it all on his own - all he’s got is a camera, a small New York apartment, and a cat who doesn’t seem like she’s willing to help him very much, either.Marvin Blumenfeld is a radiologist in downtown New York, bored with just about everything. When Charlotte, the doctor he oftentimes works with, shows him the ad calling for a man somewhere between 30 to 40 years old for a short film, he finds his life become a little less boring.





	1. independent.

Whizzer let his head hit the steering wheel, closing his eyes and struggling to keep in the string of swears that he just wanted to yell. He kept it back. He kept it all back, and slowly sat himself back up, fixing his posture. 

He could fake it through this. He could fake a smile, a laugh. He could fake happiness and kindness and confidence. He could make himself seem stress-free, he could make it seem like he wasn’t about to go home at the end of the day and scream into his pillow until his voice was gone. 

It was fine. Everything was fine. Whizzer was fine. 

He took in a deep breath, blowing it out in a sigh, and then got out of his car for the umpteenth time that day. He’d been driving around all day, since early morning, only to get rejected each time. 

But, here he went. He already knew the outcome before he even managed to step inside the door.

He should have known it wouldn’t be easy. He should have known that moving from a none-too-loving household in Nebraska, to his small New York City apartment wouldn’t instantly get him places. Yet, he had his hopes up. He really did. 

Whizzer tried to stay optimistic, as he pitched his film idea for at least the twenty-fifth time. He could just tell from the look on the woman’s face that she didn’t like it. 

Because of _course_ she wouldn’t. Why would she like it? It was stupid. Whizzer had been told that twice already - and yet it still came like a slap to his face when this woman said so, too. 

“Okay,” Whizzer said, rather calmly. “Sorry for wasting your time.”

He managed to stay home until he got into his apartment, throwing his binders and folders across the room as he slammed the door behind himself. The only thing he seemed to gently set down was his camera, because it was his second child. 

His first child, of course, was Aphrodite, his siamese cat who seemed to like Whizzer and Whizzer only - and only 50% of the time, at that. The poor cat had been asleep on the couch and was startled awake by Whizzer’s loud entrance. 

Whizzer stormed through the house, kicking off his shoes and leaving them wherever they landed, throwing his jacket aside, until he got to his bedroom. He threw himself down, burying his face into his pillows. 

But he didn’t scream. Not this time. He could have, sure, and he definitely did have the strongest _urge_ to do it, but he didn’t. 

It was silent, and he embraced the silence. He let the silence wash over him. 

The silence only lasted for a moment, quick to be interrupted by, quite possibly, one of the best noises Whizzer could have heard in that time. Aphrodite padded into the room, up onto the bed, and laid herself down onto Whizzer’s back with a small meow. 

Whizzer felt blessed, for a moment. Until he heard his cell phone ring, from his jacket pocket in another room. It wasn’t like he could get up - he wasn’t going to disturb Aphrodite _again._

It seemed to be right after the phone stopped ringing that the cat got up and wandered off again. He was only slightly annoyed, because he knew the cat knew exactly what she was doing, but he still loved her with all of his heart. 

He slipped out of the bedroom, quickly tidying up everything that he’d messed up when he first came home, before checking his phone. One missed call, from one of the people he’d tried to pitch his idea to in the earlier morning. One of the guys who had said that his idea was stupid. He stared at his phone for a moment, before deciding to make the petty decision rather than just leaving it –

 _Block caller._

In fact, Whizzer went through and blocked them _all._ He’d just do this all on his own. He knew how to film. He was a graduated film major. He could make his own short film, without the help of some stupid, rich, straight, non-inclusive film company. And he could make it better than any of those companies could, and then they would all regret calling him and his ideas stupid. 

Except there was a problem. Whizzer had no cast. 

He practically knew nobody there, even though he’s been there for only a little less than a month. Of course he interacted with people, socially, but that was all through shitty, cheap gay bars that he’d been to downtown. Those people were all one night stands. He wouldn’t have people like them in his film - he needed this to be _quality._

He needed this to be good, so that he could prove himself. So that he could prove that he was more than just a twenty-six-year-old gay man with a dream. He was a twenty-six-year-old gay man with a _passion,_ with a _drive,_ with the skill and intent to come up with good ideas and to be able to film them and release them all on his own. 

He needed a cast. He could get a cast. 

Whizzer picked up his laptop from the kitchen table, sitting himself down on the couch. Aphrodite was quick to curl up at his side, while he booted up the computer and logged onto his Facebook. That would be a good place for an announcement, right? Yes? 

Yeah, it’s what he ended up doing. 

If he, himself, starred in the film - which he had been planning on doing anyway - then he would only need three more cast members. One man, and two women. He posted this, along with a generalized description of the type of people he needed, and his phone number for contact. And then he sat there and refreshed his Facebook page for at least two hours, before finally deciding to get up and make something for dinner. 

He ate - just a sandwich, nothing fancy, which a lot of went to Aphrodite anyway - then showered, then checked Facebook and his phone once more, then went to bed. He just prayed for at least _one_ message to be there, waiting for him, when he woke up.


	2. perfect.

Nothing. There was nothing. No new texts, no missed calls, no messages or comments on Facebook. 

Maybe he was just being too hopeful. The post had only been up for a night. Maybe he’d get a reply sometime during the day, or by the next day. Whizzer got himself out of bed, got Aphrodite breakfast, and then got dressed. 

He grabbed his laptop and his camera and headed out. For now, until he got responses on his callout post, all he could do was wait. And if he chose to lay around and mope until he got a response, he’d end up bored and uninspired - and that wasn’t good for a director. Or, well, a to-be director. So, he decided to go out. He could take pictures, work on his photography and cinematography. He could write, come up with more scripts or film ideas. 

He just needed to keep busy, or he’d end up losing his mind over this small film thing. Was being a big director this hard?

No, probably not, because they would have people auditioning right and left. _Everyone_ wanted to be on television, nowadays. Whizzer wasn’t going to judge, though, because he, himself, was included in that lump of people. 

Throughout the course of the day, Whizzer found himself in many different spots. Parks, cafes, libraries, museums. It wasn’t until the fifth cafe that he stopped at that he found someone interesting. 

“You’re perfect,” Whizzer found himself saying, without think about it, without any context at all. 

The blonde woman behind the counter paused, and stared in confusion. “Uh- Thank you-?”

Whizzer shook his head. “Can you act?”

“What?”

He held up a hand, digging through his laptop bag before pulling out his folder full of scripts. He chose one at random and slid it across the counter at the woman, giving her a smile. “Read that, please. And- Act, as well as you can. Give it your all.” 

She looked at him, then at the paper. For a moment, Whizzer considered repeating his words to her. Did she not hear him? But then she started speaking - reading a part from the script - and Whizzer was immediately sold.

“What’s your name?” Whizzer asked, after she stopped reading. 

“Cordelia Abrams,” she answered slowly, sliding the script back to him.

Whizzer smiled at her. “Cordelia Abrams, you are _exactly_ who I was looking for- Are you interested on working on a short film with me?”

Her eyes brightened. “Seriously? I’d love to!”

 

“Great!” Whizzer grinned, pulling out a smaller piece of paper and writing his name and phone number, before handing it out to her. “Text me later, when you’re off work. We can discuss stuff later. Cordelia, you are going to be a _star!”_

 

But, as it turned out, Cordelia was going to be the _only_ star. It’s been a week since Whizzer found Cordelia, by a perfect accident, and the two became best friends right away. But, despite desperate attempts, they still haven’t been able to find anyone else for the cast. Just two more people, Whizzer kept telling himself, it really shouldn’t be that hard. But it was.

“We should just have Aphrodite play a part,” Cordelia said with a smile, as the cat sat on her lap. 

Whizzer sighed. “Yeah, at this point. I’m not going to get anywhere, this whole thing is a _flop.”_

“Oh, come on, Whizzer.” Cordelia said, looking up from the cat to look at Whizzer, who was draped over the couch across from her chair. “It’s only been a week. Give it time! You’ll get a cast.”

Whizzer only groaned in response.

Cordelia knew what that meant. He didn’t believe her. And, okay, maybe it was starting to look a little bit hopeless, but she wasn’t about to give up her optimism with only being a week in. “Maybe you’ll find someone like you found me? Maybe we should just go around and give lots of people scripts and see if they can act well enough.”

He shook his head at her. “Delia, it was a _miracle_ that I found someone as amazing as you. If it was always this easy to find a full cast for a film, then there would be no new actors on the scene.”

“We could post more ads?”

Whizzer groaned again.

“Look, okay, I’ll post one for you.”

Whizzer watched as Cordelia carefully reached over Aphrodite and picked up Whizzer’s laptop. She typed out something, Whizzer couldn’t see from where he was, but it seemed to be pretty long. “Nobody’s going to read it if it’s a big paragraph,” he mumbled.

“You’ll see,” Cordelia said, and she was smiling brightly. 

Whizzer just hoped she knew what she was doing.


	3. ad.

Marvin was bored. He’s been bored for quite awhile.

He was bored of his job. He was bored of his wife. He was bored of constantly sitting behind a computer screen, staring at patients’ x-rays or MRIs or CT scans or whatever else they had him doing, while constantly dreading for the work day to be over so he could go home and listen to his wife nag and argue with him. 

The only saving graces in his life at the time were his son and the doctor he worked with. Jason and Charlotte. 

Jason was wonderful. Marvin had never loved a person more. He was willing to keep putting up with the broken relationship that was his and Trina’s marriage if it were for keeping Jason around and keeping the boy happy. Jason was such a good boy - mature, kind for the most part, funny when the situation called for it. And Marvin blessed everything to have such a wonderful son, even though sometimes it seemed like Jason didn’t necessarily like him as much. 

And Charlotte was wonderful, too. Quite easily Marvin’s best friend. She made this job tolerable. They always sat together and complained on their lunch breaks, though Charlotte enjoyed her job much more than Marvin did his - which wasn’t all that hard. She was fun and sarcastic, put up with some of his antics but also would slap him back into reality when needed.

Speaking of her, she was entering his room right now, holding a bag of some kind of sorta-edible fast food. “Lunch break,” she announced. “I have a proposition for you.”

“Oh, god,” Marvin responded, only half-teasing. He wasn’t exactly thrilled to see whatever this idea was. Usually, when Charlotte came in with ‘propositions’, it was something that Marvin didn’t want to do. And something that she made him do, anyway. 

They left together, heading for the break room.

“Listen,” she said, “and hear me out. No interrupting this time.”

“Fine.”

“This girl on Facebook posted this thing, about needing actors for a short film that she was doing. Or, that someone she knew was doing - I don’t know, I only skimmed over that part. Anyway, she’s looking for a man somewhere in his 30s to 40s. You talk about being bored all the time, about wanting something to do. This would give you something to do.”

“Charlotte, no. I can’t act. You know that.”

She rolled her eyes. “I _don’t_ know that, I’d never seen you act. It won’t be that hard. You’re fake with a lot of people - just apply that to the role. Wouldn’t it be nice to be famous?”

“Didn’t you say it was just a short film?”

“Well, yeah. But if you’re good enough, and if the film is good enough, it could get awards and stuff, and-”

He interrupted her, even though she had told him not to. “No. I’m not doing it.”

“Too bad. I messaged the girl last night and told her that we’d be there to talk to her about tonight when we get off work.”

Marvin glared. But Charlotte was smiling. Of _course_ she was. She always signed him up for stupid stuff that he didn’t want to know - and that she’d _know_ that he wouldn’t want to do. She was like a wife. Like a platonic wife, but a platonic wife that he didn’t get into as many fights with as he did with his actual wife.

God, he didn’t even want to think about fighting with Trina right then. 

“Do you ever even think about my opinion?”

She seemed to actually consider the question, before nodding. “Yeah, I do.” Charlotte shrugged. “I just knew that you would say no without even considering the benefits that this could get you. I think it’s a good idea, even if you don’t get a part.”

And with that, Marvin knew that there was no way that he’d be getting out of this.

The next few hours were miserable. Marvin couldn’t focus on his job. He had a few different x-rays out in front of him, and was pretending to look over them. He wasn’t even paying enough attention to remember what he was looking at, or what he was looking for. He was waiting on a text back from Trina - he’d told her that he wouldn’t be home straight after work like he usually was, because of this stupid thing that Charlotte was having him do.

She responded near the very end of his shift, with just an “Ok.” Marvin _hated_ that response. And not just from Trina, he hated it from everyone. That they couldn’t even be bothered enough to type out the last two letters of the word “okay.” Even Jason would text with the full word. 

Another hour passed, and Marvin and Charlotte were clocking out. And then he was left to follow Charlotte’s car to wherever this stupid short film thing was. 

It was at a bakery. A bakery, with the closed sign up. But there was a girl, a tall, pretty blonde girl, coming outside as they pulled up.

“You must be Charlotte!” The girl greeted, with a bright smile, as she held her hand out. Then her eyes landed on Marvin. “And you’re Marvin! My name’s Cordelia, it’s great to meet you both.”

Cordelia shook Marvin’s hand, too, then motioned them both into the bakery. Marvin glanced around, before his gaze stopped on a very attractive young man sitting in a booth. This man was surrounded in highlighted papers, a camera, and a laptop. He looked very focused and busy and… beautiful. 

Jesus.

“Whizzer?” Cordelia spoke, grabbing the gorgeous man’s attention. “We have more people here to audition.”

The man - Whizzer? - nodded, looking over both Marvin and Charlotte. And Marvin, for some reason, now felt kind of nervous. Whizzer got up from his seat, selecting two different pieces of paper and handing one to Marvin. The other one went to a confused looking Charlotte.

“Oh, no-” Charlotte shook her head. “I’m not auditioning.”

“Why not?” Cordelia asked, still smiling. “It’ll be fun!”

“And Marvin needs someone to read with,” Whizzer added on. “I mean, I _could_ read with him, but- You’d be good for her part.”

Charlotte just shrugged and went along with it, to Marvin’s surprise.

And then Whizzer told them to start.

Charlotte’s line was first. And she was, not too surprisingly, a fairly good actress. They went back and forth a few times, before Whizzer cut them off. He and Cordelia had been making eye contact the whole time, Marvin had noticed.

Cordelia spoke first. “Charlotte, you were amazing! Why didn’t you want to audition?”

Charlotte offered a shrug. “I guess I just didn’t think about it.”

“Yeah,” Whizzer said. He was holding his own copy of their script. “Uh, Marvin? Were you even reading the stuff in parenthesis? With emotion, with passion- I didn’t hear much of that.”

He watched as Cordelia nodded in agreement. 

“He has passion,” Charlotte threw in for him. “Believe me, I’ve seen it. He can act, he’s just not trying.”

“I am _too_ trying,” Marvin grumbled, glaring at Charlotte. 

Whizzer was smiling then. “There’s the emotion we need! Try again.”

So they read again. Whizzer cut Marvin off in the middle of a line.

“You aren’t _acting._ You’re just - speaking. Think of something that makes you mad, or something.” Whizzer said, running a hand through his hair. 

Charlotte spoke up again. “Can you give us time? What if we practice with this tonight and come back tomorrow?”

Whizzer started to say something, but then Cordelia quickly answered for him. “Absolutely! We’ll be here all day. There are more auditionees tomorrow, so- whenever you want to show up!”

Charlotte thanked her, then pulled Marvin outside. 

Great. He was going to have to deal with this _again._ At least he would get to look over Whizzer once again. That man certainly was eye-candy. A bit of an asshole, but an attractive one.


End file.
